Like how if I have a river, I can install multiple dams in series to get more energy instead of having just one dam.
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These systems are complex and have many different stages. There are significant issues economic and engineering that come into play
a) Adding new turbines and/or upgrading existing ones involve downtime. This can be significant. Would taking a power plant off line for many months or even years be reasonable for the system as a whole?
b) At some point, a new plant is simply more reasonable. Certain aspects of a plant are going to be nearly impossible to upgrade. For a nuclear power plant, the core parts of the system cannot just be expanded. Adding turbines might not result in significant output increases while adding significant complexity, cost and safety issues. There is always a problem of diminishing marginal returns.
c) Changes in technology. A power plant built to modern standards will be more efficient, cleaner, likely safer and have less problems (downtime, etc). Upgrading old ones is simply not possible if they are fundamentally old technology – it would be like tearing down the entire existing plant and reconstructing it from scratch.
EDIT: Think of it as a car. When the car is relatively new, it makes sense to maintain it properly and maybe even upgrade components to make it “better”. But at some point, maintenance and upgrades make no sense (to a normal user) – a new car would be a better investment.
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